I Don't Want to Make History (1936) User Reviews

I Don't Want to Make History is another amusing Screen Song cartoon from Max and Dave Fleischer

[tavm · 7/10 · 10 July 2008]

The setting is the New News Theatre with a sign saying "News Reel Scoops" with the awning literally scooping customers inside! From there we see the newsreel with items from places like Wishy, Wash. Spot gags abound like a giant bullet inside a likewise gun taking travelers around the world to an easy parking car that squeezes other cars out of the way to make space! There's also a Rube Goldberg-like device that wakes up the inventor among other visual vignettes. Then it's on to the title song performed by an unknown vocalist with castanets followed by bandleader Vincent Lopez telling us to follow the bouncing ball as the lyrics print on screen with that ball following along to when we should sing (the whole thing is instrumental at this point). The entire cartoon short from Max and Dave Fleischer made smile from ear to ear as well as brought a few giggles. I found this on the Matinée at the Bijou site which linked this to YouTube. Well worth seeing for animation and Fleischer fans.

I Don't Want to Make History (1936)

[Michael_Elliott · 29 September 2017]

I Don't Want to Make History (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. Here's another late-stage short from the Screen Songs series. This one here starts off with several small animated shorts with a few of them quite funny. From here Vincent Lopez takes over and he and his orchestra do the title track while a bouncing ball pops up so that the crowd can sing along. If you're a fan of this series then you'll enjoy this one as well since it features a couple nice gags and Lopez's performance is also very good. This is one case where the song is actually more entertaining than the animated bits.